Tropical Rainforest - Case Study

There are many uses of the rainforest: original dwellers used the rainforest to obtain food by hunting and fishing. They also gathered fruits, nuts, roots and honey from the local trees. They may also have grown their own crops, by doing shifting cultivation which does not harm the forest, as the land is left long enough for the forest to grow back again after being cleared for farming land. The rainforest is also used for medicines, materials for housing and clothing and fuel.

Through generations tribes have been able to learn which trees and tree roots can provide with medicines and also which can be poisonous. This knowledge helps keeping the tribe healthy. As they have the medicine to make them better and the poison can be used to catch animals, which can be used for food and there coats can make clothes or blankets to keep warm. The tropical rainforests are home to many tribes, each that has its own customs and traditions, including language, diet, medicines, religion, dress, music, songs, stories, arts and crafts.

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In the forest houses are built out of trees and leaves from the local area. Another use for the different plants is as a contraceptive; many tribes have developed customs for limiting their numbers to a level were the resources of the rainforest can support them without being used up. The trees in the forest can be made into canoes by being hollowed out and then heated up and stretched into a canoe shape; the paddles can also be made out of the wood from trees.

Spears and other weapons can also be produced with the wood.

The canoes and the weapons can help catch food and protect the tribe. Rubber tapping is a sustainable use of the tropical rain forest; it is process by which rubber is gathered. An incision is made in the bark of a rubber tree. The fluid then drains into a vessel. Rubber tapping provides job opportunities for local people and can be exported to get money for the area. Rubber trees can be used for up to 5 years and then need to be left for a while before being used again.

2. Describe and explain other ways in which the TRF's have been exploited by humans.

The tropical rainforest has been exploited by humans causing great destruction to the forest, by deforestation; this began several centuries ago when European explorers discovered the rainforests and their valuable hardwood timber. When deforestation first began the rate of destruction was slow, as axes were being used to cut the trees down and the logs then removed by animals such as elephants. In the twentieth century the rate of deforestation has increased because chainsaws and bulldozers are being used to get the timber. By 1990 half the world's rainforest had gone.

There are more problems related to deforestation and cutting down the trees to use as furniture or for paper etc. because as a selected tree falls down it brings down other trees around it, then more trees are damaged as the one tree that is wanted is then dragged out of the forest onto a road or track that has been constructed. Approximately 28 trees are damaged for every one tree that has been cut down. With the new inventions of chainsaws and bulldozers deforestation is developing at an alarming rate, roughly 300 trees are cut down a week and 1500 trees a year.

By cutting down all these trees animals are losing habitats or food sources. Also local tribes that live in the tropical rainforests are not able to use the roots or plants in the forests for medicine or for food, so there will be less tribes in the forest and the original uses of the forest might be lost and their knowledge of the different roots and plants will not be known. Another way that the tropical rain forests are being exploited by humans is by mining. In the region iron ore, bauxite, copper and manganese are all mined to be sold on and make money for the country.

To collect the ore from the ground the rock is sprayed with a high pressure of water and then the ore has to be separated from the stones that have been collected along with the ore. Miners can receive up to 6000 dollars per ton of any ore. Although the mining seems to have positive effect for the miners and on the region as they get money it has a harmful effect on the environment as the trees that were cut down to create space for the mines will never grow back.

After all the ores have been collected from the area another area will be needed and so then more trees are cut down in a different area, none of these will grow back as all the natural minerals in the soil has been taken away. A further way in which the forest is being destroyed is for cattle ranching. The forest is cut down and then burnt, grasses then grow on the cleared land which provides food for the cattle. However in a few years the grass is over run by weeds which the cattle do not eat.

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The cattle are then moved to new grassland which is obtained by cutting down more rainforest. The old land is abandoned but, as the soil is now so poor it is difficult for rainforest to grown again as the spoil is very acidic. A cattle rancher puts roughly 2000 cattle on a 3000 hectares piece of land. The cattle ranches are owned by large multinational companies which sell the beef to the developed countries to consume as burgers. Most ranches tend to be on the southern edges of the rainforest but large areas have been burnt to create them.

3. What are the positive benefits of such exploitation? Logging - provides job opportunities for local peoples, which gives essential incomes for families to buy supplies. The trees are used to make furniture or paper etc. and some for the trees are in higher demand so the producers can get more profit for the tree. Mining - provides more job opportunities which mean an increase in income for that area or family. Cattle ranching - provides meat and diary products to owners which can be sold to the local area or alternatively across the seas for a greater profit.

Rubber tapping - provides jobs and is sustainable so therefore does not harm the environment and can be exported to get more money. All these different jobs provide money when exported which can be used to help Brazil get out of debt and to make their lifestyles better as the areas have more money to spend on education or facilities for a village.

4. What are the negative impacts of exploitation on;

a) The natural environment in the Tropical Rain Forest

b) People.

A) There has been a countless loss of birds, insects, reptiles and mammals which found the food and habitats in the forest, together with numerous species of tree. A typical patch of rainforest, 10kmi?? may contain as many as 1500 species of flowering plants, 750 species of tree, 400 species of bird, 150 varieties of butterfly, 100 different reptiles and 60 types of amphibian. These numbers may decrease as the forest is being cut down and species become extinct or find somewhere else to live.

It has taken millions of years for the vast numbers of plant and animal species to evolve, many of which have not been recorded yet and when the rainforest is destroyed many species will be lost forever. Also, in the hot wet climate fallen leaves soon decompose and the nutrients released are taken up again by the vegetation. If the trees are removed, the nutrient cycle is broken and existing nutrients are rapidly washed out of the soil leaving it infertile. Most of the nutrients in a rainforest are locked up in the plants. These nutrients are lost from the forest when timber is removed.

Also, when forest is burnt many are washed away with the wood ash or escape in the smoke. Another reason that taking away the trees can destroy the natural environment of the tropical rainforest is because flooding and land slides can occur because the tree roots are not holding the soil together. The tree canopy protects the soil from heavy rain, while the tree roots help to bind the soil together and to retain moisture. Without the protective tree cover, there will be less interception and infiltration and more surface run-off and soil erosion.

Soil erosion leads to an increase in the extent and frequency of land slides as the soil is able to move because the roots are not holding it together and flooding because infiltration is decreased. The rainforest acts like a sponge soaking up much of the rainwater and releasing it gradually into rivers and the air, when the forest is removed there is nothing to stop rainwater from flowing downhill and flooding lower areas. The upper areas are exposed to the hot sun and dry out quickly. Most plants are unable to grow in these drought conditions and the land can becomes a desert.

Clearance of the rainforest can cause changes in the climate both locally and world-wide. Rainfall is reduced when trees are cut down, because there is less evaporation and transpiration of water takes place, there is less local build up of clouds and therefore less local rainfall

B) Exploiting the forest has a negative impact on people that live in the forest. The way of life of the rainforest tribes has been destroyed and they become deprived of food and territory and may no longer be able to support themselves. Also as the different trees are cut down they may no longer be able to carry out their job for example rubber tapping.

In addition as the local tribes slowly run out of food there religions and traditions may be lost and their knowledge would be misplaced.

5. Explain how changes are also having an impact beyond the vicinity of the Tropical Rain Forest The cutting down of the forests is also having an impact beyond the vicinity of the forest, one example is climate. Air temperature world-wide may increase, forests store vast amounts of carbon in wood and other tissues, which is released as carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) when trees are burnt.

An increase of this gas can help to raise average air temperature world-wide. Also fewer trees mean that less carbon dioxide is removed from the air by photosynthesis, which can increase global warming because the carbon dioxide is left in the atmosphere. Although now there is still trees that can be cut down this can then be sold to the rest of the world, eventually these will run out if more to not get planted and if the soil does not become fertile enough for any more to grow.

If and when this happens the regions beyond the vicinity of the rainforest will have to try and cope without the use of the trees for furniture or paper. 6. How might the ecosystem be managed more sustainably? Before the ecosystem of the Amazon in Rondonia in Brazil can be managed more sustainably people need to be aware of the fact that the tropical rainforests around the world are being exploited and are losing their natural beauty and will eventually run out as the areas become infertile. One technique which can be used to help reduce the exploitation of the forests is by using a different way of logging.

In certain parts of the Amazon rain forest, before cutting down a tree the direction it will fall in is decided so that it will not damage as many trees when it falls down as it will pull some down with it and then the route that the tree will be pulled along to get it onto a road is then decided to again reduce the amount of damage to other trees around. Although this is helping prevent as many trees being damaged, logging is still happening at an alarming rate and if it continues at such a rate the rain forests will soon disappear.

So another technique in which the ecosystem could be managed is by shifting cultivation, many tribes that live in the Amazon all carry out shifting cultivation because it does not harm the rainforest. It would be good if the cattle ranchers could use shifting cultivation rather than burning an area and then just leaving it they could clear and area and then their cattle graze their and then more on. But as they are grazing in a different area their will still be enough minerals and nutrients in the soil for the rain forest to grow back where the forest was first cleared.

This would not damage the natural resources of the rainforest as much. . In your opinion is it possible to both exploit and conserve the rainforest ecosystem? I feel that it is possible to both exploit the rainforest and also conserve it at the same time, but it depends on how it is used and what management techniques the different people that use the rainforest adopt. For instance if a cattle rancher cut down and burnt 5 aches of forest every time he wanted to move his cattle then I feel that I can not be conserved and exploited at the same time because eventually their will not be any areas of rain forest left that are fertile enough for any forest to grow on again.

However, rubber tapping is a sustainable way in which the forest is exploited as it does no harm the forest and so therefore I feel that the rainforest can then be exploited and conserved at the same time. Because the rubber tapping does not damage the trees and this means that animals can still use the forest as a habitat and find enough food for them not to become extinct.

The management techniques that in place would also change my opinion because if their was no management techniques in place and the rainforest was just being used to cut down every tree then it would disappear very quickly but if a tree was planted for every one that is cut down then the forest would be able to remain for longer. Also if the new logging was used the forest is being exploited but being conserved at the same time as not as many trees are getting damaged. So overall I feel it is possible to conserver the forest as well as exploiting it, but it depends on how it is being exploited and how it is being conserved.